


Sheith Week Drabbles

by ptw30



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Brothers AU, Galra Keith (Voltron), Gen, Pre-Kerberos Mission, feeeeeeels, sheithweek2k16
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-22
Updated: 2016-11-02
Packaged: 2018-08-24 01:11:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 1,659
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8350477
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ptw30/pseuds/ptw30
Summary: Stories written for Sheith Week 2016Day 1: There Be MonstersDay 6: Scent MarkingDay 7: Package Deal





	1. There Be Monsters

**Author's Note:**

> Not gonna lie - I probably won't write one story for each day, but just in case the bug bites me...

The frightened whimpers eventually grew until they woke Shiro up, mumbled cries covered by the thin blanket that couldn’t suppress them completely. The kid was new, scared, and alone, and despite his age – perhaps all of six – he was closed off and mostly silent during the day. But at night, he came alive, sobbing and trembling and loud. 

They weren’t alone, but the other kids in the foster home had been around a few times already – like Shiro – but Shiro learned not to sleep too soundly, couldn’t anymore. And once he was awake, he wasn’t able to fall back asleep. 

And he couldn’t just leave the new kid like that, either. 

So Shiro dragged himself to his feet, wrapping the ratted blanket about his shoulders, and padded over to the bed opposite his. The trembling mass under the blanket froze, and its sobs silenced when Shiro sat down upon the lower bunkbed and pushed his back against the wall. 

“It’s okay,” Shiro whispered after he fought back a yawn. “You can sleep. I’ll stay up.”

Twin, otherworldly eyes peeked out from underneath the blanket, and Shiro felt captivated by their ethereal glow. Who had purple eyes? 

But Shiro couldn’t dwell on it, for a moment later, those eyes disappeared and the shivering restarted. 

“There’re monsters out there,” the boy whimpered. 

Shiro wanted to place a hand upon the boy’s crown and reassure him, but he didn’t want to frighten the kid any more than he already was. So he just murmured, “Don’t worry, kid. I’ll keep the monsters at bay.”

Then he simply waited, yawning again, and tipped his head back against the wall. He really should have brought a book to read or something. 

The boy’s breathing eventually evened out and the trembling died all together. Shiro smiled to himself and crossed his legs, settling in for what set to be a long night. Unfortunately, his eyes began to droop, and his head flopped. His back slid along the wall until he all but passed out on his side, and when he awoke the next morning, he was greeted with a face full of black hair and a tiny being tucked against his chest.

Usually Shiro found it difficult to fall asleep again, but with the reassuring warmth and the methodic breathing against his side, slumber claimed him. 

*^*^*

It was late, but Shiro couldn’t sleep. It was habit even before the Kerberos mission, but after a fight on the Galra battleship where he noticed one of his old captors, he couldn’t wind down. He ended up lying on the bed, eyes focusing on a point in space as he heard the commander’s cruel commands over and over in his head. 

The door opened, and Shiro didn’t need to look up to know who it was. Keith smacked him on the arm, and Shiro slid over, allowing Keith to take the protective positon on the bed. Pressing his back against the wall, Keith hitched a datapad upon his legs and loosely threaded his fingers with Shiro’s metal ones. 

“It’s okay,” he murmured. “You can sleep. I’ll stay up.”

And Shiro relaxed while Keith kept the all-too-real monsters at bay. 

_The End_


	2. Day 6: Scent Marking

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is part of a bigger story I've been writing, but I figured this snippet would work well for the Galra!Keith prompt.

Pre-Kerberos

“…eh, uh, Keith?” 

“Hmm…?”

“I missed you, too, but what are you doing?”

Keith froze against Shiro’s back, his cheek still pressed against Shiro’s uniform jacket, right between his brother's shoulder blades. He reluctantly pulled away as Shiro turned, eyeing with more than a little amusement the faint pink twinge that spread across Keith’s cheeks. 

Keith shied away from touching in general. Shiro always chalked it up to his upbringing in a group home in Korea, but that didn’t mean he wouldn’t indulge his own whims now and again. A hair ruffle, a shoulder bump, and once, even a piggyback ride – he’d found the young cadet passed out from too much training right on the gym floor. 

So for Shiro to return home after a three-day mission to the moon to be all but assaulted by a fond Keith was – well, quite pleasant, actually, but also alarming. Keith just didn’t do affection like most people. 

“You smell…different,” Keith murmured, his voice unsure but his shoulders pressed back in a rebellious stance. “You…don’t smell…like you should.”

“Like I should?” He shed the jacket, causing Keith to crinkle his nose in disdain. “Are you saying I stink?”

Keith shrugged, obviously uncomfortable, shoulders bunched in his cadet uniform. “You – we – have a distinct scent. You…you don’t smell like it anymore because you’ve been off world.” 

Shiro blinked and lifted up his black undershirt to smell it, then leaned forward to sniff Keith, who recoiled slightly. “Okay, so…maybe I have to take a shower, but –”

“That’s not it.”

Shit. Keith used that tone. Something was wrong, and Shiro needed to fix it now before Keith started hissing. 

Wait. Hissing? Oh.

Shiro’s mind clawed at the memories of a family cat and what she used do, and the realization rocked him. “Keith…did you scent mark me?”

“No!” Keith immediately snapped. “I just…You usually…I –”

Shiro tried so hard not to laugh, but he ultimately failed. Keith looked so uncomfortable, head drooping, eyes adverted, and Shiro could almost imagine Keith’s ears tugged down, like a drowned and thoroughly disgruntled cat. 

“Do I still stink?” Shiro asked. 

Keith had crossed his arms and leaned back, definitely unhappy with Shiro’s response. Out of the corner of his mouth, he muttered, “…yes.”

“Then come on, kiddo.” Shiro lifted his arms and flexed his fingers. “Bring it in.”

Keith’s violet eyes flashed, questioning and wondering – was Shiro serious? So Shiro sighed and took a hesitant step forward. Keith immediately took a step back, arms uncurling, mouth opening slightly. Shiro stopped and waited, arms still up, and then a beat later, Keith surrendered. 

His shoulder remained tight at first as he wrapped his arms around Shiro’s torso and pressed his face into Shiro’s chest, but then he began to move. Keith burrowed his cheek in Shiro’s shirt, tickling Shiro with his quick strokes. His hands moved up and down Shiro’s back, spreading his unique musk of desert willows, sands, and soap, and Shiro just buried his face in Keith’s mop and let him do as he wished. 

Finally, finally, the tension in Keith’s shoulders melted, and he simply unwound in Shiro’s arms, relaxing his head against his brother’s chest. 

Shiro chuckled, fond. “Better now, kiddo?”

Keith never sounded so blissful. “Yeah. Welcome home.”

“Good to be home.”

Shiro decided then to hold off telling Keith he’d been cleared for a longer upcoming mission. He couldn’t imagine how Keith would react – or what he’d smell like after nine months in space.


	3. Package Deal

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Day 7: Free Day
> 
> Summary: They go together or not at all.

Shiro was leaving. This specific family came back for the third time now, requesting to meet with Shiro and spend the afternoon getting to know him better. Third time always was the charm. If any family returned for a third meeting, adoption - or at least a foster family - was guaranteed.

Shiro would be gone by the end of the day. 

Keith hadn’t cried when Shiro left their room. The older boy even ruffled Keith’s hair and said, “Be right back,” but Keith knew the truth, couldn’t deny it any longer. He was losing the only family he’d known in his six years.

Well, good riddance. Who needed Shiro anyway? Keith didn’t really need Shiro to reassure him that there wasn’t anything in the darkness to be fearful of or that there weren’t, in fact, lions under their beds (Shiro admitted he might have heard the growling, too). He certainly didn’t need Shiro to hold his hand during the scary parts of movies. 

He didn’t need any of that. He didn’t need Shiro. 

Then why couldn’t he stop the tears from staining his cheeks and the rapid thumping of his heart? 

He stilled when a hand clamped the top of his head and ruffled his wayward locks.

“I just left you five minutes ago. When did this happen?”

Keith’s head shot up, and he blinked his vision clear. Leaning into the lower bunk was Shiro, a sad but true smile brightening his face.

“Shiro!” Keith cried as he flung himself forward, latching onto to the older boy. “You came back.”

“Of course I did, kiddo,” Shiro laughed after a moment of hesitation. “Is that what this is about?”

Keith couldn’t quite vocalize the absolute terror he’d felt when Shiro had left, so instead he buried his face Shiro’s chest and nodded.

Shiro ruffled his hair again, and the simple gesture soothed Keith’s frayed nerves. 

“What did I tell you, Keith?” Shiro murmured into his hair. “We’re a package deal. We go together or not at all.”

Purple laser blasts burned down the narrow hallway, slamming hard against the doorway where Shiro and Keith were wedged. Unfortunately, this ship wasn’t built like Sendak’s, and Shiro led him and Keith into a dead end. 

By now, Keith knew his brother better than anyone, and Shiro didn’t have to tell him to set up his shield to block them. One glance had Keith activating the barrier. A second later, Shiro powered up his hand and began cutting a hole through the wall.

Once he pushed the excess metal out of the way, Keith expected Shiro to jump out and him to follow, but instead, Shiro snatched his arm and pushed him toward it. 

“I’ll stay and make sure the sentries are distracted. You get back to the Green Lion and make sure Pidge and Hunk have - ”

“No,” Keith challenged. “We go together or not at all.”

“But - ”

“Together,” Keith insisted, eyes unwavering in their conviction. He’d follow almost any of Shiro’s commands without hesitation, without question - except this.

Shiro never left Keith behind, and Keith would never leave him.

Shiro blinked, taken back until a tender smile crossed his features, and he tore his suddenly teary eyes away from Keith. 

They went together.

_The End_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I had a two-and-a-half flight, so random fluff happened.


End file.
